This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small. I specialise in Windows Intune and SBS 2008.

Hopefully you have seen this elsewhere, but if not….. 7 th November 2008, Reading: TechNet Exclusive! Hear from the guy that brought you Microsoft’s enterprise computing to small and medium businesses An exclusive opportunity to meet Nicholas King, Technical Product Manager from Microsoft Corporation before the launch of the Windows Essential server solutions offerings, Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 on November 12 th . Hear Nicholas and Jamie Burgess advise on why these solutions have been created and why it is still important to invest in solution infrastructure in economic uncertainty. With the assistance of Jamie they will go into some technical detail around the two products that make up Windows essential server Solutions. 1. Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 is an all-in-one server solution designed to help you keep your data more secure and your company more productive. It provides many of the features used by larger companies, such as e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore—all at one affordable price Premium version also provides advanced support for line-of-business applications. 2. Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 is an all-in-one integrated multi-server solution designed and priced specifically for midsize businesses. EBS provides the essential technology needed for a highly secure and reliable infrastructure. Powered by Windows Server 2008 technology, it combines software for management, messaging, and security features into one integrated server solution that is designed to dramatically reduce IT complexity and improve efficiency across the business, putting IT in control with a centrally-managed network platform. Join us to get a technical overview of Windows EBS 2008, learn about the server requirements, and find out more about the integrated technologies and architecture. Finally after covering the key ways to deploy and...

For this month's Windows Vista Magazine I discussed how to write a script to backup your documents folder and sending alert e-mails. While there are a lot of places to go for help (links below), you will need the following for the following script copies to your user directory (%userprofile). You can get to it by pressing start and literally typing %userprofile%. Create a file called backup_script.cmd with the following: @echo off REM @echo off stops you seeing the individual backup commands executing REM TITLE changes the title of the window REM echo prints the text on your screen REM the other commands are covered in the article TITLE Documents Backup Routine echo Do you want to do the backup – if not, press Ctrl-C pause RMDIR /s /q MD %userprofile%\docs_backups2 Move %userprofile%\docs_backups1 %userprofile%\docs_backups2 Move %userprofile%\docs_backups %userprofile%\docs_backups1 MKDIR %userprofile%\docs_backups Robocopy %userprofile%\documents %userprofile%\docs_backups /s /z exit That is the first script. The second script for sending e-mail is below (call it send_email.vbs): Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message") Set objArgs = Wscript.Arguments If objArgs.Count <4 then Wscript.Echo "This command takes 4 parameters:" Wscript.Echo "1) Who is sending the e-mail - this should be your e-mail address" Wscript.Echo "2) Who is the e-mail going to - this could be your e-mail address or someone elses" Wscript.Echo "3) What is the subject line of the e-mail" Wscript.Echo "4) What will the e-mail say" Wscript.Quit End If objEmail.From=objArgs(0) objEmail.To=objArgs(1) objEmail.Subject=objArgs(2) objEmail.Textbody=objArgs(3) objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _ (" http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver ") = "MY SMTP SERVER.COM" objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _ (" http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing ") = 2 objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item _ (" http://schemas.microsoft...